Hiroshi Teshigahara, 74: Japanese director
sankkuss
Hiroshi Teshigahara; Broadened Japan's Cinema
By MARK MAGNIER, Times Staff Writer
TOKYO--Japanese director Hiroshi Teshigahara, best known overseas for
his groundbreaking film "Women in the Dunes" and as the first Asian director
nominated for an Academy Award, died Saturday of leukemia at a Tokyo
hospital. He was 74.
The 1964 release of "Woman in the Dunes," which drew on the surrealist
films of Luis Bunuel and his own ideas about existentialism, earned
Teshigahara worldwide acclaim. In addition to the Oscar nomination, he won
the Special Jury Award at Cannes for the film.
Teshigahara's films often focused on the struggle between the
individual and society, whether it was consumerism in "Woman in the Dunes,"
social bonds in 1966's "The Face of Another" or the U.S. military and
Japanese police in 1972's "Summer Soldiers."
Teshigahara's genius was his ability to move classic forms beyond their
traditional bounds in ways that sparked tension and strain. He once said
creation reaches near-perfection just before destruction.
Along the way, he helped introduce traditional Japanese culture to a
wide audience at home and abroad: The director was also accomplished in
ceramics, calligraphy, stagecraft and flower arranging.
"It's my desire to find a liberation from the confinement of the
traditional Japanese art world, with its narrow, rigid ideas, and create
things that belong to the whole world," he once said. "If you wish to create
something new, first go back to the roots from which the creative dynamic
flows and then choose your own path."
Teshigahara was born in Tokyo into a family deeply rooted in Japanese
culture. His father founded the Sogetsu School of Ikebana, one of Japan's
most famous schools of flower arranging, and the house during his childhood
was filled with students, artists and intellectuals.
His traditional grounding, reinforced by formal training in the tea
ceremony and fine arts, provided a base that he would embrace, manipulate
and rebel against throughout his career.
"To remember Hiroshi is to remember his talent, generosity, openness
and above all his enthusiasm," said author and film critic Donald Richie.
Teshigahara graduated from the Tokyo University School of Fine Arts and
Music in 1950 with a degree in oil painting and made his first film in 1953,
a documentary about the woodblock artist Hokusai.
Five years later, he formed the Sogetsu Art Center, a magnet for
avant-garde artists, before making his second film in 1959, called "Jose
Torres," a documentary about a New York boxer.
Away from the camera, Teshigahara explored other art forms, elements of
which he would then bring back to his films. He founded a ceramics center in
1973 and followed his father to become master of the Sogetsu school in 1980.
His pottery often took on tortured, distorted shapes. And his
internationally acclaimed bamboo exhibits--including one used in a French
production the Puccini opera "Turandot"--featured strands shooting skyward
and falling back in various wild droopy forms, a sharp break with
conventional ikebana.
Japanese film critic Kyushiro Kusakabe said that while other great
Japanese directors such as Akira Kurosawa worked hard to attain success,
Teshigahara's natural gift and cultural depth made his path seem almost
effortless.
"He has given Japan and the world a great deal," Kusakabe said. "He led
the world in integrating flower arrangement, film, ceramics and the stage."
Teshigahara is survived by his wife, Toshiko Koyayashi, and two adult
daughters, Kiri and Akane.
* * *
Times staff writer Makiko Inoue in Tokyo contributed to this story.
Lenona321
"Antonio Gaudi"(1984) (yes, that's where the word "gaudy" comes from! You
should see everything of his - especially La Sagrada Familia and the Parque
Guell.).
"Woman in the Dunes" is quite fascinating - I wonder why I don't remember
anyone referring to the woman as a human ant lion?
Lenona.